Prison Break: The Conspiracy (Xbox 360)

This game will make more sense if you have seen the first season of Prison Break, the characters look just as they should, they have the original voice actors I believe and the graphics are good.

When I heard the plot for the game, that some Government agent who wasn't even in the series, would be the character you would be playing, I was dissapointed, as one would suppose you would be playing as the main character in the show; Michael Scofield, but as it happens, it was a pretty good move by the developers, as the agent gives it a new slant, and whilst following the flow of the first series, has it's own missions. In fact Scofield is hardly in the game, you will spend more time interacting with Abruzzi than anyone else, although you do get to fight with T Bag up a couple of times.

The game is very well made in that the sneaking around is well done, with the AI behaving as they should, so as to avoid the frustation that can come about with games like this, you will very soon be able to read the behaviour of the games AI and therefore be able to sneak around like a pro, making it an enjoyable, suspenseful sneaking game rather than suffer dozens of infuriating restarts.

Great game that can be picked up for next to nothing right now, and it's not a sequel, how many games can you say that about these days?

As a gamer, I had mixed emotions when I this title was first announced. Prison Break was a TV action-drama which debuted in August 2005, running until May 2009, spanning four seasons and one TV-movie. The premise behind the show is Michael Schofield (Wentworth Miller) has himself imprisoned in the same penitentiary his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), who is facing the electric chair. Purcell's character had been falsely accused of killing the vice president's brother by a shadowy cabal of elites known as The Company. The show won acclaim for its originality and the fast-paced, tense storyline. It remains one of my favourite things to watch and despite having rewatched it countless times, I still enjoy it on the same level as I did upon my first viewing. Having said that, the game made me skeptical because I did not feel it was necessary, and following the disaster which was Lost: Via Domus, the Lost video game, I was anticipating a flop.

The award-winning first season of Prison Break is generally recognized by fans and critics alike as the best of the four, and it is this series upon which The Conspiracy is based. In a curious move, developer Zootfly has the user playing not as the show's star, Schofield, but as a new character, Tom Paxton, a Company agent sent in to investigate the brothers' plans. The player, in an attempt to get close to Schofield, must do tasks for other inmates and main characters from the TV series, all of which involve accessing out-of-bounds areas and utilizing stealth to evade guards, janitors and security cameras. During the story line, gamers who are familiar with the series will encounter key events from the TV show, but viewed from Paxton's perspective. Although the game is nearly entirely linear, there are quasi-sandbox features, such as being able to walk freely around the yard to work out (boosting one's strength), fight (for money) or get a tattoo.

The game was, as I expected, quite weak in certain areas. The missions that your character had to do were repetitive, and nearly all were based around a similar formula: talk to an inmate; sneak around the prison to acquire an item; return item to said inmate; repeat. During a mission, a player would use whatever cover was available to hide, and would observe guard movements in order to pick an ample time to jump to the next piece of cover. The AI of the guards was frustrating, as sometimes your character is able to jump right past them and they do not flinch, while on other occasions if they catch even a glimpse they are able to track you down wherever you hide. When spotted by a prison employee or security camera, you are sent back to the most recent checkpoint, and this will happen en masse. The game would have benefitted hugely from a more fully developed system of hiding your character, like in other stealth based games such as Metal Gear Solid.

In-game action also left a lot to be desired. When in a fight, the player has only three choices: punch, heavy punch or block. These fights are almost identical throughout, and soon players pick up an easy method of winning every single time. In certain fights and encounters, the player must use quick-time events to progress and these are hugely problematic because it will ask you to press, say, Y repeatedly before changing to another button without notice, and one error causes the entire sequence to begin again. This is incredibly frustrating; quick-time events need to be fast, yes, but not too fast so that you can't get them and only figure them out by failure.

The game has a 16+ rating, but much of it did not feel as such. During cut-scenes, the player will often witness or be involved in violence, but the punches and kicks which are delivered are ever-so-soft. Bizarrely, there is no blood in the game at all. Even during a moment in the game whereby snipers are aiming inside the prison, a character gets shot and resultantly there is no blood and no entry hole; at another point in the game, an inmate has his throat slit and there is no visual representation of blood. Of course, a game does not need to be brutal to be enjoyable, but if we are to believe that this is a dangerous prison, the game must do more in the way of showing this.

Setting the negatives aside, there are positives which shine through if one can overcome the aforementioned issues. For Prison Break fans, this game is a complete success as far as authenticity is concerned: the setting is the same; the characters are almost all entirely recognizable; the prison cells look identical, and even the large Taj Mahal construction in the Warden's office which featured in the series is included. Furthermore, nearly all of the actors from the series return to voice their on-screen avatars. Notable omissions include Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Dr. Sara Tancredi, Stacy Keach as the prison warden and Muse Waston as Charles Westmoreland. While these characters are included, they are voiced separately. Regardless, the developers did a great job in getting the original cast back and it enhances the enjoyment immensely. The inclusion of a new character is to be praised also, as the main story does not change. Indeed, Paxton happens across numerous recreations of scenes from the series, and being that this is viewed from a different perspective, it feels fresh. Finally, while some of the animations are suspect, the graphics are generally good.

Prison Break: The Conspiracy was never going to be a blockbuster of a game. The story has been told and laid to rest, leaving little room for creativity. However, Zootfly & Deep Silver's dip into the series will be a fresh piece of Prison Break for the fans who have so desperately hoped for more following the show's finale in 2009. Those who will enjoy this game the most are those who appreciated the TV show, and should be approached very skeptically otherwise.

I really enjoyed this game but i am a big fan of the whole series. At times it could be annoying but overall i found it a fun game and a different look at a storyline i enjoyed watching alot.